Environmental responsibility

[Sylvester]

I fished a league event last weekend and in the afternoon session waded off a reef to fish a hole  off the sand flats. As I made my way between the submerged rocks I suddenly found myself stuck. I tried to backtrack but both my legs were pretty well tangled up. Luckily I was only in waste deep water and the sea was pretty flat. I had the presence of mind to stop and take note of exactly what the problem was......Braid!!!! What turned out to be about 20m of brand spanking new (still had its coating on) 50lb braid! I shudder to think what a problem that could have caused had there been an incident with a Blue Ray and one needed to get out quickly! The stuff had manged to wrap me up good and solid. Luckily I spotted the end and I carefully unwrapped myself and rolled it all up and kept it as evidence of how terrible the stuff really is.


Now the question....Are we being environmentaly responsible by fishing with all this straight braid? I saw on another forum how a senior member mentioned he lost 1000m in 10 months!!!! A 1000m!!!! I ran into trouble with 20m while wading! What happens if an inexperienced diver were to get wrapped up while diving for crays....No gas bottle and panic sets in! Or a seal or a Sea gull or even the Blue Rays and Eagle Rays that live inbetween those reefs and rocks!

[WalkersKiller]

Wow thats scary Craig  didnt even know that could happen...

[Homie]

I saw on another forum how a senior member mentioned he lost 1000m in 10 months!!!! A 1000m!!!

 
I'll bet he was using a higher breaking strain leader or hooksonot than the breaking strain braid ???
  

I agree with you 150% ! As anglers (not tanglers ! ) We need to be responsible !

Braid is GREAT for fishing more direct, further cast and all of that, but COMMON sense needs to prevail !
Around rocks... braid should not be used... due to its abrasion resistance, or rather lack off !

Again... you will use a 50lb braid, but use a leader of .75 or .8... whats the breaking strain of this ???
WAY HIGHER than 50lbs !

If you want to use braid, do so responsibly...along with all forms of angling !

[Sylvester]

Wow thats scary Craig  didnt even know that could happen...

Flippin right!!! For a while after it happened i was thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong.


I have reconsidered fishing with straight braid.......I hope we are not creating an irreversible problem!

[WalkersKiller]

Wow thats scary Craig  didnt even know that could happen...

Flippin right!!! For a while after it happened i was thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong.


I have reconsidered fishing with straight braid.......I hope we are not creating an irreversible problem!

Yeah me too...

Well done for keeping your head in the situation!!!

[Half-Pint]

What would have happened with mono? Does mono degenerate underwater any quicker than braid?

[Sylvester]

What would have happened with mono? Does mono degenerate underwater any quicker than braid?

It would have snapped! Also I have noticed that mono wraps itself into a ball with the wave action, not sure why this happens. Also it seems to degrade a lot faster than braid. I have braid backing on one of my reels that is 3 years old....mono lasts a month...tops!

[Homie]

What would have happened with mono? Does mono degenerate underwater any quicker than braid?

its more the fact of breaking strain Brad...

with mono, you find that it would snap closer to the leader, and also your mainline is not going to be a 50lb breaking strain...

with braid, it you have the potential of loosing large amounts, and at a higher breaking strain

[Sylvester]

If you force your way out of mono it snaps easily.....you try and force your way out of Braid and it cuts you like a knife!!!




oops....typo!!!

[Half-Pint]

Ok I agree that we need to do what we can to limit our effect on the environment and fishing line is one of the worst killers around because most of us don't even realize the amount we leave around without realizing it.

However aside from Craig's info on mono rolling itself into a ball I don't really see the difference between braid and mono. My mono always snaps off in the middle and never on the leader join?

My braid however does snap on the bimini I think due to the fact that a bimini significantly weakens braid compared to mono?

I also don't really see how using a higher breaking strain braid affects how much you snap off? If anything higher breaking strains would be better since you can apply more pressure to free it before it snaps off?

In all my traces the leader line and hook snoots are stronger than my mainline braid or mono?

As I said at the beginning I don't dispute for one moment that fishing line in any shape or form is a silent killer due to the fact that like a snare in the game reserves it doesn't ever lose its deadly effect until it is physically removed. So any way that could reduce the amount of any line I leave behind I am keen to hear about

[Ziggy]

I am on the beach 3 times a week - and I always come home with a bundle of mono in my pocket that I have picked up. I often looks like some anglers strip line off their reels on the beach to sort out overwinds, change line...whatever...and then leave it there. My dogs sometimes get caught in it, and I have seen a gannet strangled to death.

How often have you come accross a big ball of mono and traces washed up on the beach? Sometimes at low tide the rocks are littered with mono hanging all over like tinsel on a xmas tree

Someone above said that mono is more biodegradable - I dont believe so, a quick internet search shows that Most monofilament is non-biodegradable and can take over 500 to 600 years to decompose....!

[smiley6996]

i make my own sinkers and the cheapst form of lead is to hunt the reefs for every kg of lead i collect i normaly get 3 bags of line the good line i recycle but most gets dumped the worst part comes when a baited hook is left behind and a bird eats the bait end up with a hook in its gut and dies that just my 2cents